Lions tamed

International Friendly England 0-2 Holland       van Bommel 38 van Nistelrooy 39     White Hart Lane, Tottenham     15 August 2001

Following wins against Spain, Finland, Albania, Greece and Mexico, the Three Lions endured their first taste of defeat under Eriksson when two goals in a minute settled a game in which England never truly came to life.

Eriksson selected an experimental line-up which featured Bayern Munich's 20 year-old prodigy Owen Hargreaves on the left flank and Liverpool's Jamie Carragher as the holding player in the centre of the midfield.

Holland, who fielded five English-based players in their line-up, were the quicker of the two teams to settle and England had the outstanding reactions of Nigel Martyn to thank for keeping them in the game after eight minutes when the Leeds goalkeeper foiled the normally clinical Ruud van Nistelrooy when the Dutchman had found himself clean through on goal.

That early warning appeared to have sparked David Beckham into life and the England captain terrorised Giovanni van Bronckhorst with an elusive run down England's right after 15 minutes. Beckham turned the Arsenal man inside out three of four times before testing Van der Sar with a well struck effort.

England's finest moment then came after 33 minutes when a move down the left inspired by Owen Hargreaves and Ashley Cole resulted in Gary Neville letting fly with an audacious effort from 30 yards.

The Manchester United full back, who has yet to score for his country in 45 caps, came agonisingly close to opening his account in the best way possible. His dipping, swerving effort forced Van der Sar to fully extend his huge frame as the new Fulham goalkeeper dived skywards to get a vital finger tip to the goal bound effort.

Neville's effort would certainly have been a superb goal, but, even had it gone in, it still may not have compared to the strike that Mark van Bommel produced in the 38^th minute to give Holland the lead.

The PSV Eindhoven midfielder seemed to present little threat as he ambled forward past the centre circle. However, having advanced a couple of steps further, he unleashed what must rate as one of the finest goals ever seen at White Hart Lane.

From fully 35 yards he struck a shot which began its journey looking as though it was on course for the centre of the goal, and ended by nestling in the very top right hand corner of the net. It was a strike for which there is simply no accounting - one can only congratulate the player on a stunning example of power and accuracy which had experienced Dutch coach Louis van Gaal leaping from the dug-out in celebration.

If that strike took the wind out of England's sails, Holland's second, coming as it did only a minute later, rocked Eriksson's men even further. Once again it was a venomous shot that led to the goal, this time from Boudewijn Zenden. The new Chelsea signing powered in a left-foot effort from 20 yards which Martyn could only parry. However, with a striker like Ruud van Nistelrooy around, a loose ball is always a dangerous ball and the man who has been in red-hot pre-season form for Manchester United gleefully tucked away the rebound.

Holland had now hit peak form and threatened to run away with the game. Jaap Stam could have got on the scoresheet with a header from a set-piece on 40 minutes before a sublime chip from van Nistelrooy left the whole ground in awe as it sailed over Martyn only to clip the top of the crossbar.

With half-time yielding eight substitutions for England, it was always going to be difficult for an almost entirely new team to get into the rhythm of the game and haul the Three Lions back to level terms.

Louis van Gaal also took the opportunity to make a plethora of changes and the game became somewhat disjointed in the second period - the most notable passages of play coming at the very beginning and very end of the half.

On 46 minutes substitute goalkeeper David James made a brilliant save to deny Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink when the Chelsea man was through one on one. James hurt his knee in making the block and sadly had to be withdrawn.

It was only as the game entered its dying seconds that England once again genuinely threatened to get on the scoresheet when Michael Owen surged through the Dutch defence only to uncharacteristically blaze over when through on goal.

After the game, England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson admitted he was disappointed to have lost but refused any suggestion that he should start to worry after what remains his only defeat in six games.

"No one likes to lose, and I am no different," he told TheFA.com.

"I'm not worried though, I know we have a good team and I know we'll play better next time. There's certainly no need to panic.

"Our aim this year has always been to get to Korea and Japan in whatever way we can and this result will not affect that ambition.

"What we have to do now is sit down and analyse this game, learn from what went wrong and make sure that we are ready for the big game against Germany in September."

The pragmatic Swede also pointed out that one thing going in his players' favour is that they will not have too long to wait before they can put things right.

"It's good that there are only two weeks until our next match and not four or five months," he said referring to the crucial September 1 World Cup clash with Germany. "It's up to me and the team to do better next time."

Eriksson's England have tasted defeat for the first time. The hope must now be that this result will spur them on to greater achievements in the future. Certainly, the disappointment of this result will fade into insignificance should Eriksson's men return to winning ways in Munich.

England: Martyn, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Brown, Keown, Beckham, Scholes, Carragher, Hargreaves, Andy Cole, Fowler.

Substitutes used: James (45), Wright (47), Southgate (45), Powell (45), Lampard (45), Carrick (45), Barmby (45), Ehiogu (45), Mills (45), Owen (45), Smith (70).

Holland: Van der Sar, Reiziger, Stam, Hofland, van Bronkhorst, Zenden, van Bommel, Cocu, van Nistelrooy, Kluivert, Overmars.

Substitutes used: Melchiot (45), Davids (45), Makaay (45), Hasselbaink (45), Lamzatt (74), Kamphuis (80), van Hooijdonk (89).

Referee: Anders Frisk (Sweden)

Attendance: 35, 238